


Muse

by VillainVogue



Series: Next Steps [4]
Category: Wonderland: A New Alice - Murphy/Boyd/Wildhorn
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Other, POV Original Character, probably the least angsty thing I'll ever write for this series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-08
Updated: 2014-03-08
Packaged: 2018-01-13 22:03:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1242217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VillainVogue/pseuds/VillainVogue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mally has never been suited to quietly doing dishes and putting out teacups and being in the background at the Tea Party like the Dormouse was supposed to. She'd rather be sitting beside the soon-to-be-Hatter, and something tells her that Melanie would like to have it that way, too. Part of the Next Steps series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Muse

**Author's Note:**

> This series is an AU that is not being posted in chronological order. Melanie and Mally are both original characters (though the concept for Mally came from the character of the Dormouse in other "Alice In Wonderland" adaptations).

When it came time for the Dormouse to choose his successor, Mally knew she was at a disadvantage. She didn't know how to talk nicely like the others--and there were many others in line--and she didn't know how to be proper or polite. Her voice wouldn't let her. It was too brassy and rough, and she didn't exactly like acting proper anyway.

She didn't have the right look, either. A Dormouse, male or female, should at least be somewhat attractive by Murinae standards. She was gangly and flat-chested, very different from the other girls of the Murinae family in line for the title. Her nose was too upturned--she pretended not to hear when people whispered she'd make a better Mock Turtle than a Dormouse--and she kept her hair too short and messy.

Of course the role of domestic to Hatter and Hare would go to someone more with more 'social graces', the family had told her. Mally didn't generally listen to what people told her--yet another trait that made her, in the eyes of the others, unsuited for the role. She didn't listen to them when they told her this, either.

For she knew how to observe, and she had been watching the new prospective Hatter--Melanie, a name she liked to think of as similar to her own--at the Tea Party for a while now.

She'd noticed, one day, when they'd taken their tea in a different spot on a whim, how the Flowers had made several callous remarks directed towards the girl, and how afterwards there had been what was now quietly referred to as a 'weeding'. Mally had helped, on the express request of the almost-Hatter, along with many of the guests. The remaining Flowers were quiet and respectful now, not just to Melanie, but to all her guests. They'd all agreed that the weeding had been the best course of action.

Mally understood gardening. It was arguably the one job of the Dormouse that she had a true talent for. She understood good business, too, though that was not a requirement of the job. So she understood how Melanie operated. Direct, often brutally so. Like Mally herself.

Enemies of the soon-to-be-Hatter didn't tend to stay alive for very long once they'd threatened her. But oh, _oh_ , if you were on her side, it was so much _fun_ , and there were games and gifts and good things to be had, and you tasted true freedom in the tea she poured.

Mally had started attending the Tea Party a year before Melanie's arrival, when that little waif--what was her name, Claire? Cleo?--had sat beside the Hare, sad and silent. Then suddenly the girl was gone--apparently dead, though no-one knew how--and Melanie had taken her seat. It was just another weeding, of sorts.

Mally had taken matters into her own hands shortly after the day they'd weeded the Flowers. It was something she had often thought about, and now she knew it could be done. An accident befell one of the other girls, in the garden, which was generally regarded as Mally's territory. An example, like the Flowers.

How could anyone have known that the big carnivorous plant in the back of the garden had grown so lethal? And Mally was known for being clumsy on occasion, so she couldn't have meant to push the poor girl into it. The Dormouse, certainly, had dismissed it as an accident and lamented the state of the girl's arm, while consoling 'poor distraught little Mally' that of course it wasn't her fault, and of course she would be allowed to stay.

The other prospects had been quieter after that. Some had quit. Some had, after a quiet word from Mally, suddenly become terrible at the tasks assigned them. Those ones were quickly dismissed by the Dormouse without a second thought. Some simply faded into the background until no-one knew they'd ever worked for the Dormouse at all. A few tenacious ones had to have certain painful accidents arranged for them. A few even-more-tenacious ones suffered fatal accidents--it had been surprisingly easy for Mally to get her hands on arsenic once she had mentioned it to Melanie.

Eventually, only Mally was left.

Melanie had looked so pleased, the day she was appointed the new Dormouse. The thought was enough to fuel her ambitions further. She'd become an active presence at the Tea Party, and had often filled in for the Hare during an 'episode'. He wasn't a particularly strong right hand for the Hatter, Mally thought.

There was no rule that the Hare had to be the Hatter's first lieutenant. Mally had looked it up once, to make sure.

She was always seated at Melanie's direct left, even when Morris was missing. She wanted so badly to be sitting on the right, but Melanie--Mel, to those close to her, and Mally was very close by now--had insisted.

They'd done the dishes together one day after tea, and Mally had, in her not-so-subtle way, brought up the subject of seating arrangements and had not-so-casually implied deeper meanings to said arrangement. It hadn't come out the way she'd meant it to, but the younger girl intimidated her somehow, made her blush and stammer and wish she had the confidence that just _oozed_ out of the prospective Hatter. She wasn't good with words to begin with, but she only found that to be a true disadvantage in these private conversations.

Melanie had laughed, a high-pitched sound that wasn't quite musical but sent a fluttery feeling to Mally's stomach. The feeling had deepened when she found her fingers tangled together with her Hatter's in the soapy water.

"Oh, my _darling_ Dormouse. You know I'm left-handed, silly."

Her voice had lingered on the 'darling' a bit more than would have been deemed proper, and so had Mally's mind, but then neither girl was the type to care about causing a scandal.

Mally had squeaked out an "Oh", not quite absorbing the words, and Melanie had laughed again, and they had finished the dishes, and that had been that.

At the next Tea Party Mally was struck with the sudden realization that she was doing, and had been doing for a long time, Morris' job. The Hare, meanwhile, had become a quiet, unobtrusive, background presence. Like the Dormouse was supposed to be. It was immensely satisfying, almost like the kind of feeling she had when Mel's fingers entwined with hers, or when she received one of those special smiles reserved for only a few.

She had moved in to the Citadel of Looking-Glass Land shortly before Mel's official appointment as Hatter. The role of the Dormouse had changed, she knew, far more than she'd ever dreamed it would. Mally had gone from mere maid to co-host of the Tea Party and overseer of the Citadel.

And she had become the Hatter's... _something_. Business partner was not quite the right word. Eventually, Mally leafed through her slightly limited vocabulary and settled on 'confidante', a word Mel had once used to describe her. She assumed it meant something along the lines of 'most trusted', which was certainly something she would call her Hatter.

She would follow that girl to the end of the world. That beautiful, powerful, wonderful girl with her bright laugh and dark eyes. Mel was everything Mally was not, and yet she was sure they were of the same mind. They completed each other.

Together, they could take on the whole world. And they would win. Mally would make sure of it.


End file.
